Best Of Fight Club

WILD & WACKY SIDE

But I enjoyed the hard-knocks tour of boxing history when Muhammad Ali picked his 10 greatest heavyweight championship fights.

The list is featured in a breezy soft-bound, magazine-style book titled Muhammad Ali The Greatest. Besides the list, the 132-page book includes stories by George Foreman, Larry Holmes and Jose Torres, and is edited by Bert Sugar.

Foreman's remembrances of the 1974 "Rumble in the Jungle" in Zaire provide poignant insight into a surly giant who has since morphed into a hugable elder statesman for the sport and pitchman for a famous grill.

"Muhammad Ali owned their hearts and minds more completely with every punch he absorbed," Foreman wrote of Ali's famous rope-a-dope strategy. "For them, this had become a morality play: Muhammad was good and I was evil.

"I'd wanted them to love me, too -- and for some reason they didn't. I vowed never to go back."

Anyway, the envelope, please, Mr. Ali (in chronological order):

Jack Johnson vs. James L. Jefferies1910

Jack Dempsey vs. Luis Firpo1923

Gene Tunney vs. Jack Dempsey II1927

Joe Louis vs. Max Schmeling II1938

Joe Louis vs. Billy Conn I1941

Rocky Marciano vs. Jersey Joe Walcott I1952

Joe Frazier vs. Muhammad Ali1971

Muhammad Ali vs. George Foreman1974

Muhammad Ali vs. Joe Frazier III1975

Buster Douglas vs. Mike Tyson1990

The dividing line of memories starts in 1971 with me when my uncle took me to the Jai-Alai Fronton in Miami to see the first classic match between Frazier and Ali.

I've been hooked since.

SPUR-DOGS, MAD DOGS, FISH

No doubt Steve Spurrier's Washington Redskins will try to set an NFL exhibition record for points scored when they face the Tampa Bay Bucs at Raymond James Stadium at 8 p.m. Saturday (WFTV-Ch. 9).

While the Redskins have scored 110 points and passed for 1,203 yards in three exhibition games, "Spur-Dog" is also racking up points for political incorrectness in the No Fun League. After Pittsburgh's 35-34 loss to Washington last Sunday night, Steelers safety Lee Flowers said he didn't think Spurrier's offense will translate well from college to the pros.

"I did happen to see what he said," Spurrier said. "I guess what he was implying was that Pittsburgh has such lousy defensive coaches and such lousy backup defensive players that they couldn't stop our lousy offense. I guess only time will tell if he's right."

Sixteen games remain on the regular-season schedule. Oh, Lordy, this is going to be good.

Although it won't telecast the game live this Saturday, Sunshine Network will air the FSU-Iowa State matchup in its entirely during Prime Time Noles beginning at 7 p.m. Sunday.

Sunshine Network begins airing Dolphins Live! With Goldie and the Mad Dog co-hosted by the Dolphins' longtime analyst Jim Mandich and Steve Goldstein. The one-hour live series will air Thursdays from 6:30-7:30 p.m. beginning Sept. 5 and run for 18 consecutive weeks. For those who don't have a game program or can't figure it out, Mandich is the Mad Dog.

If you truly have no life, you can catch me and zebra-striped colleague Dennis (The Fat Guy) Salvagio trying to keep law and order in the chaotic Mascot Games highlights airing at 8 tonight on Sunshine Network.

I'm going scuba diving in a few days, and there is space for rent on my wetsuit if you'd like to help pay for the excursion.

Seriously, diving is great fun, but there is always one pinhead on the boat who lights up a cigarette, then tosses the non-bio-degradable butt into the ocean, destroying our precious marine life. May a thousand jellyfish curl up in your underpants as payback.

Sunshine Network has purchased more than 30 Tampa Bay Lightning tickets for the 2002-03 season on the Ice Palace's club level and will work with The Tampa Bay Sports Commission to distribute the tickets to "deserving local high school athletes."

Which begs the question: What did they do to deserve such torture?

My fat cat Twiggy, hopelessly addicted to the scrumptious variety of menu options and morphing into a "Twiglet," is suing Purina Cat Chow.

PINHEAD OF THE WEEK

The NCAA (The Nimrod Collegiate Archaic Association) once again swims in a cesspool of hypocrisy and convenient interpretations of its silly rulebook.

It forced skier Jeremy Bloom to give up his commercial endorsements so he could play college football at Colorado. Never mind that this is an organization that allows universities to sell the sponsorship on their football uniforms to shoe and apparel companies.

Our hypocritical bureaucrats also ignore Drew Henson cashing in on nearly $2 million to play for the New York Yankees while playing quarterback at Michigan, and FSU's Chris Weinke taking a $400,000 baseball bonus before winning the Heisman Trophy in Tallahassee.

But it zapped Bloom -- who competed in the 2002 Winter Olympics in Salt Lake City -- from pocketing harmless endorsement money from Oakley and Under Armour, and also nixed a modeling deal with Tommy Hilfiger. All deals were completely unrelated to football.

The NCAA loses much more -- its credibility -- though it gains bonus points among pinheads for its misguided sense of justice.